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Elouise the Car Mouse
Elouise was not a common house mouse. Elouise was a most uncommon car mouse.
Elouise had come to live in the car when she was a wee little mouse. A big hand stole her away from her mother and put her into a white box. Elouise found a loose corner in the box and chewed and chewed until she had a small hole to wriggle through. One of the things that mice are best at in the world is chewing. When she squirmed through the hole she'd chewed, Elouise was in a little red car with tattered upholstery. A nice human girl named Mary drove the car around sometime. Mary filled Elouise's water bottle, gave her good things to eat and talked to her in a soft voice.
At first Elouise was frightened of Mary, especially when Mary tried to catch her, but Mary put out water and food for Elouise and eventually they decided to be friends. Mary said Elouise was her Official Car Mouse and no one else at her college had such a fine mascot.
When Mary had other humans riding in the car, Elouise hid under the back seat or crawled through a hole into the trunk if they were too loud. If it was just Mary, though, Elouise would sit on the front seat and hope for a lovely cold french fry or a piece of donut. Elouise and Mary were best friends.
One day when Mary got into the car, she put a suitcase in the back seat and her purse on the front seat.
"We're going home for Thanksgiving, Elouise," she said, and off they drove.
They drove until it got dark. Elouise climbed up onto Mary's shoulder and groomed her fur. Mary laughed and stroked Elouise gently with her finger. Being best friends was wonderful.
Suddenly Mary yelled, "Deer!" and pulled hard on the steering wheel. The little red car bounced and slid wildly. Mary pulled the other way. The little red car spun around. BANG! It hit a hole and rolled over.
When Elouise crawled out from under Mary's purse, the car was lying on its side. Mary's seatbelt was holding her in
her seat, but her head and her arms were hanging down and she was moaning. Elouise was very worried. She jumped and scrambled and climbed until she could reach Mary's hand. She wrapped her front paws around Mary's finger and gave her encouraging licks.
"Oh, Elouise, I need my cell phone to call Daddy," said Mary.
Mary tried hard to unfasten her seatbelt, but she couldn't do it. Elouise tried to help, but she was too small to move the big silver buckle. Mary broke off all of her fingernails trying to unfasten her seatbelt, then hung there crying.
Elouise jumped down from Mary to the side door of the car and crept into Mary's purse. She grabbed the cell phone with her teeth and pulled and tugged until it was out of the purse. Mary saw the phone and reached as far as she could, but her arm wasn't long enough for her to touch the phone. Elouise wasn't strong enough to carry the phone up the car seat to Mary. Oh, what would they do?
Then Elouise had a brilliant idea. She scampered back up the car seat and over Mary's shoulder. She ran up the seatbelt until she found a good place to start chewing. One of the things that mice are best at in the world is chewing.
Elouise chewed and she chewed. Her mouth got full of prickly stuff from the seat belt, but she spat it out and chewed some more. It took a long time, but finally the last bit of seatbelt broke and Mary fell down and landed on top of her cell phone.
Mary pulled the phone out from under her and called 911. She talked to the nice dispatcher lady while Elouise sat on her shoulder and licked her cheek to comfort her.
After a while there were bright flashing lights and a loud siren wailing. Big men with big feet and big voices banged on the car. Elouise was terrified, she ran fast under the back seat and into the trunk and hid shivering. The men took Mary out of the car and went away.
It was quiet for a while, then there were more frightening noises and the car crashed over onto its wheels. The engine wasn't running, but Elouise could tell the car was traveling down the road.
Everything was quiet and Elouise was all alone. The sun came up and Mary didn't come. The sun went down and still no Mary. Elouise found some soda in an old cup and drank it, but soon it was gone and she was growing hungry and thirsty. Where was Mary?
The next morning, Elouise waited for Mary. She hoped Mary would come soon, she was thirsty and lonely. She was worried about her best friend, Mary.
It was almost dark again when the car door opened.
"Elouise," called Mary, "Elouise, where are you?" |
